21 People Who Changed Music

[Si Hunt]

Of course, Q Magazine couldn't celebrate their 21st anniversary without some kind of list. So behold, the 21 people that apparently changed music!

Lennon/McCartney
Kurt Cobain (of course!)
Bowie
Ian Brown
Bob Dylan (yay!)
Radiohead
Led Zeppelin
Madonna
Kraftwerk
Ian Curtis
Kimi Hendrix
John Lydon
Elvis Presley
Public Enemy
Michael Jackson
Velvet Underground
Lee 'Scratch' Perry (Eh?)
James Brown
Brian Eno
R.E.M
Damon Albarn

Nice to see Albarn changed music more than, for example, the Stones or the Who, but there you go. Is it a good list? Who would be in YOUR 21?

Si.

[SiHart]

But Albarn DID change music more than the Stones- if you look at the way Blur changed the tide of American grunge influenced bands into Britpop in 1994, that's probably more influence than The Stones had in the 60s when they were following in The Beatles footsteps. Blur were aguagably one of the most influential bands of the mid 90s.

Si xx

[WhiteCrow]

Surely Thomas Eddison - his "Mary had a little lamb" might have had a limited release, but without being able to record music onto a medium, we'd not have the mass market for music we have.

[Si Hunt]

But Albarn DID change music more than the Stones- if you look at the way Blur changed the tide of American grunge influenced bands into Britpop in 1994, that's probably more influence than The Stones had in the 60s when they were following in The Beatles footsteps. Blur were aguagably one of the most influential bands of the mid 90s.

Like I said, nice to see!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Excuse me? Is the magazine changing its cover letter from Q to WTF? Surely they mean 21 people who changed modern pop music. The wankers.

What an absolute stinking way to fill a few pages of their shitty mag. How utterly awful. Perhaps they should have done their Top 21 lists/space-fillers, except that would have ended up with 2,000 crappy articles that make you want to vomit vying for first place.

I bet they said it's top 21 People Who Changed Music of All Time as well, ignoring the thousands of years of musical history of the world.

Who changed music? The people who invented the MP3, Les Paul, Fender, Robert Johnson... I'm not saying the people on the list aren't talented and haven't been influential on other bands, but for fffffs sake, it's just another excuse to fawn over their favourite artists who give them lots of interviews. C***s.

/rant

[Si Hunt]

I'm certainly not debating any of Steve's points... he's gone really scary!!

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

A lot of people using the C-word today - did you all wake up on the wrong side of bed?

[Paul Monk]

Steve is scary when he goes off on one

He has a point and being pedantic Lennon and McCartney are 2 people and the Velvet Underground are several people! More like about 26 / 27.
I stopped subscribing to Q for exactly the reasons Steve gives and just because I got fed up of their endless lists!

[WhiteCrow]

Steve is scary when he goes off on one

It's all the standing on street corners he has to do to make a living. I don't ask too many questions!

[Perry Vale]

As others have said, it's a very blinkered list. Where's Caruso?!?

[Si Hunt]

I'm glad Pavarotti's not on there. He had that big hit with the football song, then never got to number 1 again.

Si.

[Simon R]

No Debbie Harry?

[Wayne]

What, no Nana Mouskouri?!

[Si Hunt]

What no

[P-Bal]

Nana, she lost at Eurovision you know.

[Simon R]

Wot no bananas?

[P-Bal]

I think a certain Hi-de-Hi episode springs to mind.

[Captain Tancredi]

That list serves no purpose other than to list 21 acts the writers like. As has already been pointed out, they can't tell the difference between groups and people, and by "music" they mean the popular music of the English-speaking world after about 1950. The story of how we came to have the music we have is so much more complicated and involves everything from the invention of the valve trumpet and the pianoforte to African slaves being transported to America and taking their songs (and different tonal system) with them. It's lazy and vague.